Owen Updates

THURSDAY, AUG. 28
1:15 pm
Minor setback. While trying to remove his drainage line, the pediatric intensivist noticed that it was stuck. With kids Owen's age, they typically give him a pain reliever and then just pull the tube out. It hurts to take it out but they're supposed to feel a lot of relief after it's removed. They are thinking that the tube must either be stuck on a suture or wrapped up in something. So, now he will have to go back into surgery mainly because they want to make sure they can give him some anesthesia so he won't feel anything while they figure out what the tube may be stuck on and remove it. This probably means we will be here for another night because we have to wait until around 3 or 4 tonight before he can go under anesthesia since he last ate around 10am. Otherwise, everything is going very well and Owen is still playing and in good spirits. He's starting to get a little sick of being in the hospital (we all are) but after this disappointment with the drainage tube is over we should be headed home early tomorrow.


WEDNESDAY Aug. 27
1:00 pm
Posted by grandma:
Everything is going great! After a round of nurse visits, the removal of his IV lines from his foot and the O2 sensor from his big toe Owen was totally worn out and upset from all the poking & prodding. Though he was pretty upset from all of this, we wanted to get him on his feet now that all of the “attachments” to monitors were allowed to be removed. We wheeled him in one of the wagons down to the playroom. Well, after about a 5 minute look around, he let us pick him up out of the wagon, and after a few wobbly steps he started picking up and playing with toys in the play room. Within 20 minutes, you’d have never thought he was there for anything serious – he was playing with toys, throwing the balls, popping bubbles, -- back to his normal self – it was great to see. He also had a really wet diaper, which was what the nurses had been monitoring, since output after surgery is usually slow and they were waiting for all of his body functions to return to normal.

All looks well at this point. Current plan is that he will still be here overnight. Mom and Dad are pretty worn out, but Grandparents are close to give them a break as we can and as Owen will allow it – he doesn’t want Mom or Dad to stray too far.



7am
We were able to move to the regular patient floor last night around 7pm. Owen was feeling pretty good and ate some graham crackers and watched "Elmo's Greatest Hits" which the nurses were kind enough to track down. We stayed the night in his room with him and the nurses came in about every two hours to check on him. Craig and I didn't get much sleep but Owen did great and only really woke up when pestered and once or twice to be held by mom or dad. He is still recovering very well and we're hoping he'll eat some scrambled eggs and toast this morning since he's now allowed to have something other than crackers. He is still hooked up to the monitor which is checking his heart rate, oxygen level and respiratory rate so no walking just yet but hopefully later on today. Something to note, when we checked Owen in yesterday morning, his heart rate was 54 bpm. Now that he's paced, his heart rate is 90 bpm. The doctors actually set his pacemaker at 90 bpm so that his heart can get used to beating almost twice as fast before they take off the set rate and let his heart beat normally for the first time. Once they do this, his heart rate will likely be somewhere in the 100bpm range.

2:27pm - Owen is waking up and we've been able to visit him since about 10:30. He's just now starting to ask for food and to "walk". We're not too sure when he'll be able to do either but hopefully it's soon since he's getting anxious. Recovery is going very well and we are hopeful that he will get to leave the PICU soon and move into a regular room. The PICU has been fantastic but moving means we'll get a room that we can sleep in with him and that his recovery has passed the need for intensive care.

9:47 - Everything went fine, the pacer is placed and he'll be in recovery soon. We'll be able to see him in about an hour.

8:48am - Owen went to surgery around 7:30. He is doing just fine and they are just about to start placing the pace maker. We expect that they'll be finished in another 90 minutes or so. We'll update when he is in recovery.
We're pretty sure we'll be headed to the PICU for maybe one night and then another on the general floor.
Thanks for all your thoughts and positive vibes.